BNMT Nepal organized a Policy Dialogue on September 16, 2022 to discuss on the findings of the systematic review paper titled – ‘Is routine vitamin A supplementation still justified for children in Nepal? Trail synthesis findings applied to Nepal’s national mortality estimates’ with the policy makers under the Research, Evidence and Development Initiative (READ-It) project.In the dialogue, high level stakeholders such as: Mr. Pradip Gyawali, Executive Chief, Nepal Health Research Council; Ms. Rita Bhandari, Director, National Tuberculosis Control Center; Ms. Sarmila Dahal Paudel, Community Nursing Administrator, Department of Health Services, and representatives from WHO and UNICEF Nepal working on nutrition participated. They were involved in the discussion along with BNMT’s senior management team.

The dialogue, facilitated by Professor Paul Garner (Infectious Disease Research, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, UK) aimed to:

1. Convene diverse stakeholders in the area of Research, Nutrition, Maternal and child health
2. Present and discuss the evidence and policy implications from the study

The stakeholders engaged in a broad ranging discussion, incorporating diverse strands of multidisciplinary evidence and expert opinion. It was noted that Nepal has gained significant achievements in reducing maternal and under-five mortality rates since VAS was initiated. However, the indicators are still high. Malnutrition and extreme poverty has risen since the Covid pandemic and the current situation is unclear. Also, the dialogue identified key evidence gaps and need for further research and data on key indicators including morbidity before considering a revised VAS approach in Nepal.

The Vitamin A policy dialogue convened diverse stakeholders in the area of research, nutrition and child health in Nepal. The dialogue was informed by the policy briefs and the READ-IT study findings published in PLoS One, 2022 May. (Link: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0268507).